---
title: 'Business Development Associate at Samba'
canonical: 'https://feeny.ai/job/business-development-associate-samba-san-francisco-rvwg1666jrvr'
type: 'job'
last_seen: '2026-10-12'
---

# Business Development Associate at Samba

- **Company:** Samba
- **Location:** San Francisco, CA
- **Compensation:** $200k–$230k
- **Work type:** onsite
- **Posted:** 2026-07-30
- **Last confirmed live:** 2026-10-12
- **Apply:** https://jobs.lever.co/sambatv/d013c1e0-f181-4274-8457-4bd62aaf456a

## Job description

This role sits within business development, supporting Samba TV's commercial partnerships and strategic deals. The ideal candidate will have 3-4 years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, investment banking, or top-tier consulting, with a finance, economics, or business degree. They have experience in strategic commercial deals: how to structure a partnership, evaluate a data licensing arrangement, and assess whether a BD opportunity is worth pursuing, along with fluency in financial modeling and an interest in the media and technology sectors. This position offers the opportunity to work closely with senior leadership on strategic commercial partnerships — including managing relationships with OEM partners — while developing expertise in deal execution and financial analysis. Mandarin language skills are preferred, particularly to support engagement with international OEM and platform partners.

## Responsibilities

- Support end-to-end execution of strategic commercial partnerships, from preparing business cases to evaluate BD opportunities to closing the deal
- Manage and grow relationships with OEM partners, serving as a key point of contact and driving ongoing partnership value
- Create partner-facing decks, term sheets, and deal summaries for strategic BD discussions with platforms, OEMs, advertisers, and data partners
- Coordinate with internal stakeholders including finance, legal, product, and engineering teams to facilitate partnership execution and integration planning
- Conduct preliminary financial analysis to evaluate the economics of potential commercial deals and data licensing arrangements
- Build and maintain models to assess the value, economics, and key metrics of potential partnerships
- Conduct industry research and competitive analysis to identify emerging trends and strategic partnership opportunities in the streaming and advertising technology landscape
- Maintain partnership pipeline tracking and status reporting for ongoing business development activities
- Support ongoing partner relationships, including OEM accounts, through meeting prep, follow-up tracking, and QBR coordination
- Attend industry conferences and networking events to identify potential opportunities and maintain market awareness

## Qualifications

- BA/BS degree in Finance, Economics, Business, or related field; MBA is a plus but not required
- 3-4 years of experience in business development, strategic partnerships, investment banking, or top-tier management consulting
- Strong financial modeling skills with proficiency in Excel and experience building deal economics and partnership analyses
- Experience using tools like PitchBook, Capital IQ, or Crunchbase for market intelligence and partner research
- Demonstrated ability to synthesize complex financial and business information and communicate findings clearly and concisely to senior leadership
- Experience analyzing financial statements, key performance metrics, and business models, ideally including international partnerships
- Mandarin language skills preferred, particularly to support relationships with international OEM and platform partners
- Experience managing or supporting OEM or platform partner relationships is a plus
- Strong attention to detail with the ability to manage multiple work streams simultaneously in a fast-paced environment
- Excellent written and verbal communication skills with experience creating executive-level presentations
- Interest in or knowledge of the media, entertainment, advertising technology, or data analytics industries preferred
- Prior exposure to commercial deal structuring, partnership development, or data licensing is a plus
- Self-starter with strong work ethic and ability to work independently with minimal supervision
- Willingness to travel as needed for partner meetings and deal execution
- Mandarin language skills are preferred

## About Samba

## Company Overview
- **One-liner**: Samba (formerly Samba TV) is a media intelligence company that uses AI and first-party deterministic data from 1.5 billion people to power cross-screen TV and digital advertising measurement, targeting, and analytics for the world's largest brands, publishers, and platforms.
- **Entity Type**: Private (Series B)
- **Headquarters**: San Francisco, California, United States
- **Founded**: 2008
- **Founders**: Ashwin Navin (Co-founder & CEO), Alvir Navin (Co-founder & COO)

## Core Business
- **Primary Industry**: Media Intelligence / Advertising Technology / Data & Analytics
- **Target Customers**: B2B — primarily Enterprise (global brands, agencies, publishers, and platforms like Disney, Havas Media, and "the vast majority of top global brands")
- **Mission Statement**: Unite TV, digital, and behavioral data through AI to power faster, more accurate media decisions.

## Products & Services
- **Samba Analytics**: Independent cross-screen measurement using first-party data for deduplicated reach, frequency, and performance outcomes. Allows optimization of campaigns while they are still in-flight.
- **Samba Audiences**: Exclusive audience segments and Private Marketplaces (PMPs) built from Samba's deterministic cross-screen signals for effective targeting.
- **Samba Knowledge Graph**: AI-powered mapping of interests, behaviors, and purchase intent, linking content to 1.5 billion real people, devices, and households.
- **Samba ID**: A universal identity solution linking content to real people and devices across screens.
- **Samba AI**: Contextually analyzes and indexes all media content, including brand logo detection on TV.

## Market Standing
- **Valuation**: Not publicly disclosed
- **Total Funding**: $75.7M USD across 9 rounds
    - Last known round: Series B ($30M, June 2017, led by Union Grove Venture Partners and Disney Accelerator)
    - Other notable rounds: Series A ($7M, February 2012, led by August Capital)
- **Key Metric**: Owns first-party TV and web data for 1.5 billion people globally.
- **Notable Investors/Partners**: August Capital, Union Grove Venture Partners, Disney Accelerator. Strategic clients include Disney, Havas Media, and "every platform and publisher you need."
- **Growth Signals**: Acquired Semasio in 2024, becoming the only provider owning both TV and web first-party data. Rebranded from "Samba TV" to "Samba" in 2026. Global workforce of 251 employees (+20.1% YoY growth). Operations span 6 countries with 13 offices.

## Competitive Advantages
- **First-Party Data Moat**: Nearly two decades of proprietary, deterministic data from smart TVs (24 brands, 48M devices) and web (1.5B people), creating a unique and un-copyable dataset.
- **Full-Funnel Integration**: The only provider to combine TV and web first-party data (after acquiring Semasio), offering planning, measurement, and activation in one platform.
- **AI-Powered Knowledge Graph**: Goes beyond traditional media measurement by mapping interests, behaviors, and purchase intent, enabling contextual analysis without relying on third-party cookies.

## Strategic Focus
- **Platform Expansion**: Evolving from a TV data provider into a comprehensive "media intelligence" company (rebranded in 2026).
- **Cross-Screen Unification**: Connecting TV and digital data to provide a complete view of audience behavior across all screens.
- **AI & Contextual Intelligence**: Deepening investment in AI for content analysis, brand detection, and predictive audience targeting.
- **Global Scale**: Operating across six continents and expanding direct partnerships with major platforms and publishers.

## Why Work Here
- **Founder-Led Culture**: Described as having "startup intensity and enterprise impact," with a "culture that values ownership over hierarchy and outcomes over optics."
- **Global & Distributed**: Teams span San Francisco (HQ), New York, London, Hamburg, Sydney, Los Angeles, Chicago, Austin, Warsaw, Taipei, and Amsterdam. Officed with a global, collaborative ethos.
- **Engineering & Data-First**: Ships products that "touch billions of signals daily." A strong emphasis on data science, engineering, and product roles.
- **Compensation & Benefits**: Competitive base salary, equity participation, performance bonuses, generous parental leave, flexible PTO, annual learning budgets, home office stipend, and best-in-class hardware.
- **Culture Values** (from company career page): Determined & Resilient, Self-Aware, Naturally Curious, Low Ego, Results Oriented.
- **Employee Rating**: 3.9/5.0 on LinkedIn (172 reviews), with Work-Life Balance at 3.9, Compensation at 3.8, and Culture at 3.8.

## Sources
1. [samba.com](https://samba.com/about-samba) — About Samba / Company History
2. [samba.com](https://samba.com/careers) — Careers Page / Culture & Benefits
3. [samba.com](https://samba.com/) — Home Page / Product & Platform Overview
4. [linkedin.com/company/sambatv](https://www.linkedin.com/company/sambatv) — LinkedIn Profile (Company Details, Size, Financials)
5. [jobs.lever.co/sambatv](https://jobs.lever.co/sambatv) — Lever Careers Page (Open Roles)

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